Yes, I know the Phillies are still in first place in first place in the NL East despite injuries, shaky pitching and an offense as fickle as the Dow Jones industrial average.

But for several reasons, this is a must-win game for the Phillies. You don’t have to be Keith Law to figure that out. Just take a look at who pitched for the Giants last night: up-and-coming left-hander Jonathan Sanchez, who held the Phillies to one run. Then take a peek at who the Giants are handing the ball to tomorrow: two-time defending Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum.

Teams want to avoid sweeps in any series, whether it’s April or September. And tonight the Phillies get a chance to pick up a win against Todd Wellemeyer, whose ERA is even higher than Ryan Madson’s 6.75 – which also happens to be Wellemeyer’s career ERA against the Phils. And if that’s not enough, here are the rest of Wellemeyer’s career splits vs. the Phillies: 0-2., 1.63 WHIP, .290 BAA, seven home runs allowed in 22 2/3 innings pitched.

As troubling as Monday’s loss was (after all, Roy Halladay has to settle for 32-1 instead of 33-0), there was one major bright spot. Shane Victorino went 3-for-5, including his first two doubles of the season, for only his second game of the season with more than two hits. No matter where he hits in the order, Victorino is an essential gear in the high-octane engine that is the Phillies’ offense; when he sheds his early-season slump, it will give the lineup a nitro boost.

One troubling thing that has emerged in the first month is the Phillies’ steep decline in steals. They rank second-to-last in the National League with a meager seven; the Nationals and Padres are tied for the most with 20. From 2007 to 2009, the Phillies stole 393 bases, behind only the Mets’ 460 in the NL.

Your gamenight beer: The very malty strong ale, Old Chub, is a Scottish ale that goes down very nicely. The can – it’s served in a can – has a nice kilt pattern on it. Couldn’t you imagine Jamie Moyer in a kilt? Go get ‘em, old chub! Have this with some beef barley.

Had no idea there was even a game last night. I seriously was 110% positive it was their off night. So when I see a post from the Phils Official Site on my news feed that says “Doc loses first; Phils fall 5-1”, I legitimately thought it was a joke for about 5 minutes. And the fact of the matter is, it sucks. But we’ll bounce back. Hopefully tonight! Howard and Raul come up big, are my predictions, and Jamie keeps this offense off balance just like he did last time out.

j, Howard hits a roper down the right field line, looks like a double all the way. Howard gets lazy, pulls into second slowly, and standing up, and Renteria applies a quick tag on him. Out at second. Kinda like what Werth does sometimes to dyed in the wool singles when the ball gets to him fast, throws a strike to second base to make it close. Except worse, cause it happened to us. And it happened because of laziness.

The howard play is the most embarrassing by a phillies player in a few years.
He simply didnt hustle on a ball that rattled around in the out field corner in one of the biggest stadium in baseball.
It was a disgrace simply put and he shuold have done it the day before the big contract. not the day after

Sadly we do not have another starter, we have to bring the Reliever to Start. Anyone who disagrees with Moyer not being reliever material should watch the last couple of batters he has faced, the good ones firgure it out

As Sarge said, Sandoval just put a tough pitch in play. That’s what a low-offense team like the Giants has to do. The Phils need to do some more of that – hitting it where it’s pitched…as long as it’s pitched somewhere in the zone. Because they’re the ones who really are low-offense now.

Nice to see Mets fans emboldened again. will they be comng back here now? It is always funny to me. they beat up on the cubs and Astros and dodgers team without Manny that lost 1-0 to the nats a few days ago.
But hey the Mets are great again. Maybe there will be some juice for this weekends series. The mets havent mattered in a very long time now.

Ibanez needs to be benched. He was dropped in my fantasy league. this is not something new. Ever since the hot streak to begin last year he has sucked. I guess the old man wont ever bench a player though.

We need to just find ways to win, till Blanton, Happ, Rollins and Lidge are off DL. Then we will be fine.

I still have issues with Moyer starting, but guess that is not going to change unless they go get Pedro again, Kendrick is not a viable replacement and we have NO BUDDY in LHV to replace him or anyone close to being ready. The Price of Halladay/Lee oh well rather have Halladay.

What makes Moyer better is if Halladay/Hamels/Blanton/Happ pitch well then the bullpen will not be taxed

The Phils offense looks lifeless: no clutch hitting, too many strikeouts, letting the pitchers getting much more confidence than they deserve. It’s really sad to see. Hopefully bringing the mets into town this weekend will wake them up. It makes me sad they started out so hot and now they can’t buy a run. This pitching the offense is seeing really isn’t that good. Utley looks clueless tonight.

Todd Welemeyer.
I forgot the phillies always struggle against the worst pitcher on any given team. i said last year the Phils are lucky in the playoffs because they face good teams with good pitchers. The skell pitchers always look good vs the phils.

I see a trend growing…last year according to phillies fans the ibanez signing was a great deal for the team…this year the phillies would love to unload him: this year the phillies fans are trying to convince themselves (despite what everyone else is saying) the howard deal is great….we will see what your saying next year and beyond…

Tim,
When Ibanez hurt himself last year that was what many, majority of the people thought was the reason for his slump, Now there is no excuse except age. So it is not a trend just reality, Some signings are great Ibanez’s was good for last year horrible for this and next know we need to resign Werth.
Last year at this time Werth was thought of as a Top tier player in the league, things change

I have never understood this pattern, but the Phillies have such a frustrating tendency of making terrible pitchers look like aces. Wellemeyer’s control has been terrible, and the Phillies are taking sad swings at first pitches and looking absolutely incompetent. It is painful to watch.

Cy Wellemyer needed 5 pitches to retire the side that inning. It was 6 the inning before.
Ibanez is signed through next year. WOW
It looks bad now. this happens every year. My biggest concern with this club is still the bullpen. And they havent even flared up like a pack of hemmoriuds et this year.

Yeah I’m off to bed. 11 pitches in the last two innings for Wellemeyer is what did it for me. All the stuff that made us successful- patience at the plate, waiting for your pitch, hustle- it’s all gone. Out the window. First pitch popping up, second pitch grounding out…it’s disgusting. And I’m upset. But we’ll get through it. And hopefully we’ll go home and kick the Mets nice and hard and we’ll be good.

OK I need to turn this off.
do I really have to watch tomorrows game?
I hope its one of the good giants pitchers so maybe there is a chance.
Howard set the tempo for this game with his non hustle crap play
this is as bad as it gets.

Moyer pretty much gave us what is expected of him. This offense does look very bad right now. A championship team should not be held down to 3 hits in the 7th by todd wellemeyer. I’m sorry but this is horrid. We are making this shmuck look like tim lincecum. I wonder what will happen when we actually have to face lincecum tomorrow.

Watching this game, I cannot figure out if I’m watching the back to back nl champs or a mid 1990s 70 win calibre phillies team. Upsetting, really.

If he is not sitting Vic for his lack of production and generally sucking at the plate, and Ibanez well for being Ibanez, and Utley for looking like a fish out of water and Polly for hitting into inning ending DPs. well then he doesn’t sit Howard.

Maybe we forfeit tomorrow get a early flight back have a come to Jesus moment in the locker room:)

But he has always in the past benched players for non hustle.
The howard play was the most/worst non hustle play I may have ever seen.
LOL
At least we are having some fun here and laughing because this is brutal and yes ladies and gentleman the mets are in first place now.

Just got home and found out the score and for some reason or another, it does not surprise me with the current trend of the pitching and hitting. Wonder if the return home will change anything? Need to get all of the injured players back and playing.

Some game, some road trip, fellow posters. They ought to bring Brown and Mayberry Jr. up to replace Ibanez and Victorino for awhile. These two veterans are not doing anything right now anyway. Let the young guys get some experience in the “bigs”.

So this joke of an offense is facing “The Freak” tomorrow and the choke artist herself aka Princess Cole is pitching for the Shitties …I mean Phillies tomorrow.The view from the top is great.See you bums Friday.Go Mets!

Haha like I said earlier, let then enjoy that view from the top. Remember when they were in first in june last year? That lasted. Ill be at the game against the mets on Saturday. I went to see the phillies mets on july 4th last season and it was a nice 2 for the phils. Let’s keep the streak alive.